


The World Was Wide Enough

by snufflyphoenix



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt, Family, Gen, Hurt, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Pain, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-05-26 16:59:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15005315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snufflyphoenix/pseuds/snufflyphoenix
Summary: I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory. Is this where it gets me? On my feet, several feet ahead of me.Jesse McCree couldn’t count the amount of times in his life he had thought he was going to die.If he was being honest, he was surprised he had even made it to 37. Deadlock had never been kind to him and covert operations often came with the caveat of ‘and you may not return’. Running from the law had been an experience he could only very generously call ‘exciting’ and now a member of the illegally reformed Overwatch he had expected his fair share of danger.He had just never expected to be staring down the barrel of a shotgun with his own revolver pointed at the chest of Gabriel Reyes.





	The World Was Wide Enough

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Cai (ccaaii) for helping me flesh out this idea, and I hope this somewhat lives up to our headcanons.

**_I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory. Is this where it gets me? On my feet, several feet ahead of me._ **

 

Jesse McCree couldn’t count the amount of times in his life he had thought he was going to die.

If he was being honest, he was surprised he had even made it to 37. Deadlock had never been kind to him and covert operations often came with the caveat of ‘and you may not return’. Running from the law had been an experience he could only very generously call ‘exciting’ and now a member of the illegally reformed Overwatch he had expected his fair share of danger.

He had just never expected to be staring down the barrel of a shotgun with his own revolver pointed at the chest of Gabriel Reyes.

He saw his ex-Commander, now barely recognisable behind the mask and as a cloud of smoke, lay in wait before shooting Lúcio in the back of his prosthetic knees. Now Lúcio was on the floor, unconscious from hitting his head hard as he fell, Jesse had watched in horror as Reaper crouched next to him, reloading as he traced a claw down the side of Lúcio’s face. 

He couldn’t let this happen. Stepping out from where he had been hiding, Jesse drew his pistol and raised it. “You really don’t wanna do that.” 

Jaws set, they didn’t break eye contact.

 

**_I see it coming; do I run, or fire my gun, or let it be? There is no beat, no melody._ **

 

Reaper looked up, expression unreadable as he stood. He stepped back over Lúcio and met Jesse’s eyes. “Do what?” He asked, his voice raspy the way he had come to expect nowadays.

“You know what. And I won’t let you.” Could Gabriel hear the shake in Jesse’s voice? He wasn’t sure but his aim didn’t falter. 

“You think you know so much.” 

“I know a lot.” 

“I know you do. But you do not know enough.” Gabriel-- Reaper, Jesse corrected himself, said as his head tilted and he stepped closer. There was nothing of Gabriel left in there, Jesse knew that now. “And you do not understand.”

**_Gabe; my first friend, my enemy. Maybe the last face I ever see. If I throw away my shot, is this how you’ll remember me? What if this bullet is my legacy?_ **

“There’s no understanding this.” Jesse adjusts his grip on his pistol. “I couldn’t kill an innocent man.”

Reaper pauses for a moment before reaching up to turn off his earpiece. “No one is innocent, mijo.” 

Mijo. After everything… Jesse scowls. “Don’t mean he deserves a bullet in the brain. You taught me better than that.”

“I suppose I did.” He takes another step closer. “But I told you - you don’t understand.”

“Take another step closer and I’ll shoot.” 

“Sure you will.” Reaper chuckles, a noise that makes the hairs on the back of Jesse’s neck stand on end. “Like you said, I taught you too well. You’ve gone soft on me.” 

 

**_Legacy, what is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see._ **

 

Watching him turn his back in complacency, Jesse pulls the trigger, the bullet whistling past Gabe’s head. He’s certain his own heart stops as he does. 

Gabe stops in his tracks, tilting his head to the side slowly, deliberately. “You're playing with fire, Jesse. Walk away.”

“No.”

**_I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song someone will sing for me; Overwatch, you great unfinished symphony, you sent for me_**

“Jesse-” 

“ _No_.” Jesse's voice rose. “I believed in you. I believed there was still something of you left in there but there's not, is there? … the Gabriel I knew would never do this.”

“The Gabriel you knew died long ago. His body living on is simply an inconvenience.” 

**_You let me make a difference, a place where even orphan immigrants can leave their fingerprints and rise up_ **

“It would seem so.” Jesse’s aim didn't waver. “I admired him so much.” 

The Reaper sneered. “You hero-worshipped a legend who took you in when he felt guilty for having shot your parents in the head.” 

Something changed behind Jesse's eyes and his finger tightened on the trigger. “You're lying. He didn't shoot my parents. They were killed in the raid on the safehouse.”

“And who,” he chuckled, “was heading that raid?” 

**_I’m running out of time, I’m running, and my time’s up_ **

Everything seems to move in slow motion.

Jesse lunges forwards til he’s up against Reaper, his gun angled under his mask.

Gabriel’s arm moves up on instinct to catch him, gripping tightly, claws digging into his arm. 

He squeezes the trigger. 

**_Wise up, eyes up_ **

BANG.

Jesse's body jolts as the shotgun shells pierce his flesh and Gabriel drops his weapon, stunned, in shock. 

He holds tightly onto him as he staggers. 

“Mijo--” 

Jesse's laugh is faint, breathy. “Qué, papá?” 

Gabriel doesn’t say anything. He carefully lowers him to the ground, pressing firmly on his shoulder where blood was rapidly spreading from. 

Jesse lets his eyes close and he laughs again, the sound worse this time. “It's right it happened like this. … knew you’d get the best of me one day.” 

“Stop talking.” He hisses, “save your fucking breath, kid, fuck. Where's your med pack?” He looks up. “Jesse?” 

No response. He quickly checks his breath, ignoring the part of his brain that asks him what the fuck he's doing. Jesse had just tried to kill him, after all, but of all the things that Gabe had done - he was not about to kill his own son. Not if he could help it.

Thinking quickly, he grabs the sonic amplifier that Lúcio had dropped, enabling the healing aura. Placing it down next to Jesse, he reaches for the communicator on Jesse's wrist and utters a silent prayer that the SOS code remains the same.

He almost cries when the loud beep from the device confirms the SOS has been sent and he stands, not allowing himself to look back at Jesse as he walks away. He pauses briefly as he passes Lúcio, sighing at his own conscience before pulling him into the aura too before wraithing away. 

He could not afford to be seen. 

Sounds of the incoming helicopter ringing him his ears, he switches his earpiece back on as he reaches under his mask to wipe tears he cannot cry. “Sombra. 

Mission failed.”

**Author's Note:**

> This idea has been hurting me for ages so here; Hamilton related Overwatch feelings! 
> 
> I have lots of thoughts and feelings about what happened to Gabe for him to become Reaper so please come and discuss them with me on my Tumblr (betterthanforever.tumblr.com).
> 
> Thank you to Cai (ccaaii) for helping me flesh out this idea, and I hope this somewhat lives up to our headcanon.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
